I’ve gotten a new phone and setting it up for the past few days - a Fairphone 5 with Android installed. So obviously, this means I can’t escape Googles clutches. Sure, whatever.

I have been VERY adamant about pressing “No” on all prompts, that try to get me to try something out or use some dumb service. I do not want any AI tool or similar to go through my files.

Yet, while perousing the depths of my system settings, I realized Google Photos was using a suspicous amount of storage. Somehow, it had “synchronized” ALL my locally saved pictures - this included pictures of my vacations, my drivers license, private pictures I would have rather not shared, and so on…

And while checking the Google Photos App for the damage done, obviously it had already automatically generated “previews” and “albums” for me, neatly organized.

IT HAD AUTOMATICALLY ANALYSED MY DRIVERS LICENSE AND SAVED IT INTO AN ALBUM CALLED “Identity-related”

How the fuck is this legal? I am so mad at myself right now. I’m usually so fuckin cautious about denying any sort of pop-up and setting all settings as strictly as possible.

So obviously I just had to spent 2 hours figuring out how to turn this “synchronization” off, and how to delete all photos in google photos - spoiler alert: There is no “Delete All” button. You have to manually select every single fucking image.

Sorry for the rant, I hope it’s not too off-topic. I’m just so mad right now.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
    2·
    1 hour ago

    I use Adguard and block Google photos from connecting to the internet.

    Features like edit video still work, so I’m good. If editing didn’t work, I’d disable it.

  • frongt@lemmy.zip
    1·
    57 minutes ago

    That all sounds like on-device behavior. You didn’t say anything about it actually being uploaded.

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    17·
    4 hours ago

    Not against your will, you accepted this and more in the TOS of your account. But you can avoid it in the permission settings in your phone.

    The second biggest lie in Internet: “I’ve read the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service” the first one “We respect the privacy of the user”.

    https://neal.fun/dark-patterns/

  • Lojcs@piefed.socialEnglish
    11·
    5 hours ago

    Same thing happened to me, and there is a delete all button. Go to Google photos > top right profile pic > backup is off (or whatever it says when it’s on) > top right gear > undo backup for this device.

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    10·
    5 hours ago

    If you were using Photos as a photo roll app you need to stay angry at yourself a while longer. That’s on you when you should know you cannot trust the G. Don’t grant an app permissions to photos and videos that could sync it to the cloud. And as another precaution, don’t keep sensitive pictures in the DCIM folder. If I have to take pictures of sensitive documents like that I disable WiFi (sync set up on WiFi only), take the picture, move it to a folder that’s never backed up elsewhere on my phone, and then turn WiFi back on.

    You are not normal because you care about these things. The normal user doesn’t care and that’s who they are catering for. I’m not excusing their behavior (I don’t like it either) and at the same time you need to be more on your toes.

    I’m planning to move to Ente this year when my Google cloud subscription runs out. Not looking forward to the work it entails but to the [paints face blue] FREEDOM!

  • nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de
    27·
    8 hours ago

    Yes, this happens. Even if you turn off all the syncing etc, they will shoot an update and all your settings will revert to default. This has happened with my father’s phone a lot.

    And even if you keep all these settings off, they are still scanning all photos to check for CSAM.

    I highly recommend deGoogling your phone. If you cannot install a custom ROM, check out Universal Android Debloater. There are many sources for degoogling your life. Check out c/degoogle on Lemmy (I forgot the instance name, just search for it). Or if you want we have small group on Signal for deGoogling related talks, DM me and I can share the link to join. (Signal does require a phone number to register, but since usernames are a thing your phone number will not be available publicly.)

    • Substance_P@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 hours ago

      I appreciate your comment, replying here for reference, perhaps I’d like to join that signal channel. Being staunchly anti-google I feel I’m on top of things, but my Gmail is used across many of my logins. With the scanning for CSAM issue, many people don’t realize that Google installs a hidden app called safetycore, for me it gets reinstalled on every update.

      https://allthings.how/what-is-android-system-safetycore-and-why-did-it-appear-on-your-phone-2/

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
      16·
      8 hours ago

      There not even checking for CSAM

      That would be near impossIble considering the tech. Even on a normal portrait is hard to judge the age on. Let alone fotos with more complex perspectives and only some body parts visible.

      What they are doing is using hashes of specific real pictures that the police know are commonly shared.

      Theoretically it could catch some careless content consuming offenders. The worst offenders, that produce new material, are beyond the scope.

      But also, obvious what google gets is just the hashcodes and not the actual pics. If the police gave google a hash to target for pics of vances bald head or (trans-positive) memes who would know?

    • RealM__@lemmy.worldOP
      4·
      4 hours ago

      e/os is most likely my next step, especially with Google disabling installing “unverified” third-party apps in 2026.

      Bought a FP5 with e/os in mind as a possible upgrade path, I just was too worried to immediately do the full jump.

            • Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world
              2·
              2 hours ago

              I don’t but its been posted a couple of times on Mastodon, I assume its on their blog and in their forms too.

              The jist is Fairphone doesn’t have the security HW to run it

              • TXL@sopuli.xyz
                1·
                2 hours ago

                Would be nice if fairphone was in talks of making sure that adequate hardware will be in next version. That would benefit both projects even if they didn’t offer official support.

                I’ll guessing the problem will be the chipset vendor.

  • nelson@lemmy.world
    10·
    8 hours ago

    If you disable Google photos storage access you don’t even have a camera roll :/

    That’s how embedded the damn thing is

  • AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip
    5·
    7 hours ago

    I was gonna say something about postmarketOS, but it’s not ready yet. Mobian is also not ready for it either.

    So next best option if you really wanna get rid of this type of stuff is either rooting your device to remove what you don’t need or flashing something like GrapheneOS or a different OS.

    But I’d consider that a last resort if you already have everything set up just right and have things you don’t wanna lose and can’t backup easily. That, and if it’s a work related device, you’re screwed.

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
    8·
    8 hours ago

    Check out Aves Libre on F-Droid

    I had to ditch Google Photos app because of my paranoia, about this exact same thing that happened to you.